It has been a long time since I have written here, for which I apologise. Family illness, including my own arthritis, has been the cause. It wasn’t that there was nothing to write about; interesting pens abound. It was just time that was always in short supply. I’ll try to do better. Though no luxurious and expensive pens have come to hand recently I do have subject matter. A friend gave me a pen as she couldn’t use it. I considered a quick tutorial in the use of the fountain pen but it was clear that she had made up her mind. Fountain pens are not for her – for the time being at least.
The pen she gave me is a Pilot V-pen, one of the erasable sort. It is a disposable pen, a pity as it has a very good medium nib. These pens are all about practicality with little attempt at aesthetics. Though I do appreciate a handsome pen I like this one as well. It’s a mixture of white writing on a black background and the reverse. The ends of the barrel and cap are domed and it has a perfectly practical plastic clip. What more could one want from a fountain pen?
The short answer is – a filling system. I understand that some people have converted these pens to eyedropper fillers but that’s a system that I’m not especially fond of in modern pens and anyway, life is too short to convert a disposable pen into something it wasn’t intended to be. I may try to salvage the nib when the ink is used up.
What is the purpose for the disposable fountain pen? Is it meant to occupy a similar place to the disposable Crystal Bic? Surely, as we become ever more aware of the damage disposable plastic has done and continues to do to our environment, another piece of throwaway plastic shouldn’t be welcome. I would like to have pens like this, that work so well and sit in the hand so comfortably, provided they were made to be refilled, therefore having a longer lifetime and thereby not adding so quickly to the problem we are trying to solve.
Where should the blame lie, with the manufacturer or the buyer? Both, I suppose.
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Glad to see you back and sorry for the health challenges. I have a few of these, filled with my favorite waterproof inks, for shopping lists etc. Normally out of a pack of three, I manage to salvage two. Though it’s not the best idea to empty a full one as you might end up like me with ink all over the place 🙂
In the long run, I prefer the preppy’s for this type of use 🙂
Agreed, Bob.
I’ve used this pen. It is impressive considering it is disposable; however, as you said, disposable is a horrible disposition.
Thanks, Danny.
Deb ..greetings. Agree completely, why even bother when there are so many lovely old ‘proper’ pens to have.
I have refilled a couple , and maybe the only possible redeeming argument is that they do last ages and are quite easy to refill .
Welcome back 🌺
Thank you, Rob. I think I might have something on cheap pens that are refillable.
Deb, great to see you active again. We’ve missed you.
Cartridges don’t bother me because of their convenience, e.g., for long written exams, or while travelling. Although they are not considered ‘posh’ by some, I think the C/C filling system is preferable to piston fillers, especially because most of us really don’t need large capacity reservoirs in our daily activities. On the other hand I always get a thrill when filling one of my old Onotos.
Greetings and best wishes from the Antipodean stray dogs.
Of course you don’t have to fill your piston all the way. More on cartridges to come.
I’ve successfully refilled every Vpen I’ve owned (three so far) several times over, and would agree that the nibs are surprisingly servicable. The Zebra offering is made of a harder plastic and not so forgiving for removing the nib/feed. The niche they fill for me is that I don’t mind leaving them in notebooks or lending them at meetings, since they’re so low cost. I get the choice of inks (now they’re refilled), they last ages (like eyedroppers do), and never seem to dry out. On the flip side – I quite like the initial black ink they come filled with, but don’t think it’s a standard Pilot bottled offering.
I’m sure they have their uses but I kind of wish they didn’t exist – like all the throwaway ballpoints.
I have a weak-minded affection for the Zebra ‘Fuente’ – 10 years ago my local stationer was selling them off for some ridiculous “buy-6-for-£5” deal and I’m a sucker for a bargain. Amazon currently have them for £14 per dozen…
It rekindled my dormant interest in fountain pens (and I now have a collection of 250+ Wyverns – so it didn’t work out as cheap as I’d anticipated…).
As others have commented, Zebras are fairly eye-dropper-able – and they’re very good if you want to experiment with nib grinding at home…
I’ve had Zebras in the past. They’re good but I didn’t like some of the colours in the set I got.